Transport workers to protest sell-offs with work stoppages

The metro, the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway and the tram network in Athens will be disrupted next week as workers have announced work stoppages as a preamble to further action in protest against what they describe as the government’s decision to pave the way for the privatization of public transport.

“The government has opened the door to private investors by incorporating STASY [the operator of Athens’s fixed-track public transport system] and [trolley operator] OSY in the new privatization fund that sells off state-owned assets,” workers said in a written statement, adding that “private urban transport has been tried before and the consequences are well known: Expensive tickets, unsafe transport and even fewer routes.”